News Detail

Free Rides to Celtic Fest all Weekend

(DAYTON, OHIO)…The Greater Dayton RTA will help thousands of people celebrate all that is Celtic this weekend by providing free shuttle service to the Dayton Celtic Festival. The three-day event features a 5K run, Irish food, artists and culture, and amazing Celtic music and dance performances.

“Planning a shuttle route for the 90,000 people who visit the Celtic Fest over the weekend has been a joy,” said Planning and Marketing Director Frank Ecklar. “Whenever RTA can step up as a community partner to facilitate an event such as Celtic Fest, we try to do that.”

The United Irish of Dayton Celtic Fest organizers are encouraging festival goers to park at the Transportation Center Garage at 101 E. Fifth Street or the Riebold Garage at 131 W. Main Street. There will be a fee to park, but the shuttle ride to the festival is free.

RTA buses will operate in a continuous loop north on Jefferson, west on Monument, south on Ludlow and east on 5th Street. The bus will take a small loop around Bainbridge, Hugo, Wayne Avenue, and travel back onto Fifth. Several temporary bus stops will be located all along the shuttle route; festival goers will only have to wait a few minutes at a stop to catch the next bus with the Celtic Fest window card and “shuttle’ on the destination sign.

The hours of operation for the RTA shuttle are Friday, July 29 between 5:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 30 from 11:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 31 from 9:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. All shuttle service will continue each night until the last customer is picked up.

Bus Reroutes

RTA is rerouting several regular bus routes starting Thursday July 28 through early morning Monday, Aug. 1 because of street closings and detours around the RiverScape area as a result of Celtic Fest. All closed streets will be open to regular traffic by 2 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 1.

At 9 a.m. on July 28, Patterson will close between First and Monument (affecting the Northbound Route 16 only). All other reroutes will begin at 6 p.m. on July 28th when the following streets will be closed: southbound Riverside between White Allen and Monument, St. Clair between Monument and First, and Monument between Patterson and St. Clair.

If your stop is located in the closed area, catch the inbound RTA on St. Clair St. between Second and Third Streets. The reroutes affect routes 5, 11, 16, 17, 22, 18, 19, 22, X1A, and X1B as follows:

Route 5: Inbound from Monument, left on Webster, right on Second, right on Jefferson, left on Monument and then resuming the regular route. Outbound will follow regular routing.

Route 11: Inbound from First, left on Webster, right on Second, left on St. Clair. Outbound will follow regular routing.

Route 16: Inbound from Riverside, right on Great Miami Blvd., left on Main, left on First, right on St. Clair. Outbound from First, left on Webster, left on Monument, right on Riverside to regular routing.

Routes 17, 18, 19, 22, X1A, X1B: Inbound from Monument to left on Webster, right on Second, left on St. Clair. Outbound will follow regular routing.

RTA is Ohio’s greenest fleet, and serves 3,300 stops on 31 routes throughout Montgomery and parts of Greene County. The agency operates diesel, hybrid diesel, and electric trolley buses that take people to work, school and shopping. Customers ride RTA on more than 9 million passenger trips each year. RTA is committed to providing the highest levels of customer service as the region’s first choice for alternative transportation.